Husband kills wife and persuades children to keep it secret; arrested

A 34-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly strangling his wife to death at South Delhi’s Jawahar Park area, police said on Monday.

According to the cops, the accused, identified as Sudhir Gupta, had problems with his wife, Sandhya (31), running a small-time beauty parlour to meet the financial needs of the family. On the wee hours of June 18, Sudhir had a fight with Sandhya over food served as dinner the previous night. This ensued into a heated argument and Sudhir allegedly strangled Sandhya to death in a fit of rage.

The couple had two children, aged around 12 and nine years, who happened to have witnessed the entire incident. After allegedly killing his wife, Sudhir called up his brother-in-law <g data-gr-id="34">Ankur,</g> and told him that his sister was bleeding profusely from her ears, nose and <g data-gr-id="33">mouth,</g> and that she could die any moment. 

Meanwhile, he also tried to persuade the children into lying if asked about their mother’s death.

By the time Ankur rushed to his sister’s residence, he saw neighbours and police officials there. 

Sudhir had by then created a scene and summoned his neighbours to be witness to his wife’s ‘mysterious’ death. Around 9.30 am, one of the neighbours had called up the Police Control Room and reported the matter. A case under Section 302 (murder) of IPC was registered immediately against <g data-gr-id="38">unknown</g> person at the Neb Sarai police station, said a police official.

The official investigating the case said it were the traumatised children who first mentioned vaguely about a scuffle between their parents the previous night. After that, when Sudhir was grilled, he broke down and confessed to the crime. He was arrested on Saturday.

Sudhir and Sandhya got married in 2000, after which Sandhya was allegedly subjected to cruelty by her in-laws, which made the couple buy an apartment in Jawahar Nagar. 

Soon after shifting to the new house, the family experienced an acute financial crunch and Sandhya opened a beauty parlour at a rented room in nearby Raju Park area. Sudhir reportedly had a problem with that and often asked Sandhya to help him at his wholesale vegetable shop.